FairieMoon

In which Judy gets mad and "pitches" a fit

Yesterday was a hard day for everyone at Fairiemoon Headquarters, the day the dam broke, so to speak.

Punch, who has not been enjoying Little League AT ALL decided that he was "too sick" to play. When baseball season first started, he was just finishing his second season basketball season for the year. After the first baseball practice he said to me, "Mom, I want to quit basketball." When I asked why, he stated,"I am tired of basketball and want to focus on improving at baseball because it is my new favorite sport." I was surprised. He really didn't enjoy baseball last year. The games are long and he was always stuck in the outfield, but hey, who was I to decide, maybe baseball is his game. By the third practice, his enthusiasm for the game changed when he got hit in the back with the ball during batting practice. And in a mere moment his short, but passionate love affair with baseball ended. Since then it has gotten increasingly difficult with each game to get him to participate. Yesterday, he had just had it, and faked sick.

Now, a good mother would have probably forced him to play, knowing that he was merely faking, and to be truthful, this was my first instinct. I even said to him, in a not-so-award-winning mother-moment, "Get dressed and if you have to, throw up in the grass." But it has been a long two weeks, during which we have had school, band, dance, baseball, cub scout, etc., events every single day. I don't know about you, but I cannot handle that much scheduled time. I like to have days where we can enjoy long hours of having no plans or commitments whatsoever. Ahhh...that really sounds nice right now... Needless to say, I was tired and I had no fight left in me, so I let him fake sick with the understanding that he will participate, with that much more vim and vigor, in the next game . The problem is that everyone KNOWS he was faking because his sister also plays on his team and we still had to attend the game to cheer for her, so his whole team saw him running around on the adjacent playground, swinging on the swings and snacking on yummies from the concession stand. I am not sure he cares a wit, but Judy does.

I realize this is a really long explanation to get to the punchline, but bear with me.

In the process of trying to get Punch to participate in the game, Mr. MacGyver and I got in a wee fight, after which he had to leave for work. (I never like to people to leave when there is even a hint of irritation in the air). Then I caved in to Punch and let him sit out, which made Judy mad at me AND Punch. I was mad at Punch for so blatantly faking sick and Judy for being such a pill about it.  Basically everyone was mad at everyone, except for maybe Punch, who totally got what he wanted. So I got to the game and had a little cry...in front of everyone (please understand, I cry as a release to almost every emotion...sadness, frustration, anger, joy...so this is not that unusual for me, but I usually indulge in this little vice in private rather than in front of my whole community).

Well, upon seeing my tears of frustration, my friends rallied around me...it is so good to have friends...and everything seemed to be going a bit better for awhile. But then Punch was mean to a small someone in the sandbox (really, I HAVE taught him better), and Mr. MacGyver arrived at the game right after Judy pitched, missing the brilliant moment in which she struck out her friend and nemesis TWICE, quite a braggable moment indeed. So then Judy was mad at her Dad, mad at me, mad at Punch and when Judy is mad, everyone suffers. It's the red hair.

Here she is...avoiding the camera.

 I tried to cheer her up by taking silly pictures. She was not in the least bit amused.

You will be glad to know that I eventually hit upon just the thing to take the edge off of the situation, however...I suggested that we go for a walk up by the pond. She caught a couple of frogs and felt a tadpole better. Then we picked some lovely columbines. Flowers always cheer a girl up! Now her room is filled with them. After our trip to the pond, we all still felt a bit fragile but at least we were all talking to one another once again.

Do you ever have days like this? I mean, I have actually had worse days. This wasn't THAT bad in the grand scheme of things, but it wasn't that good either and it ended with everyone feeling rather fragile and out of sorts. And of course, I don't really like sharing my moments of weakness with the entire Little League.

Here is to hoping that today is better!

In which Hitty Dauphine becomes impatient for a new sister -- Part Two

This morning, Hitty Dauphine was sitting at her desk writing a letter to Hitty Sophie.

As you will remember, Sophie recently decided to leave Weathertop in search of greener pastures (you can read about her adventure here). Well, as Hitty Dauphine was sitting at her desk writing her letter, she started to feel a bit lonely.

There she was in her big bedroom all alone. The silence was just deafening.

At first she thought it might cheer her up to have a tea party. Tea parties are always a welcome thing at Weathertop.

But tea parties are no fun when you have no one with which to share them.

So she tried playing with her favorite dolly.

But while dolls are good listeners and secret keepers, they are not very good conversationalists, so Hitty Dauphine decided to go find someone to whom she could talk.

Her first stop was the Weathertop schoolroom, but when she got there, she found it empty. Apparently Miss Ebby Puttence had taken all of the children on an end of year outing today to the Field museum.

Her next stop was the nursery. It is always nice to play with the Weathertop babies.

But the babies were nowhere to be found. "They must be out for their daily walk," thought Hitty Dauphine. Surely she'd find someone in the living room, the whole house couldn't be empty, could it?

But yes, indeed, it was.

Hitty Dauphine felt so lonely. But what was this?

Someone had been here recently reading one of Hitty Robertson's eloquent tomes. Perhaps they'd just gone downstairs to the kitchen for a cup of tea. It was kind of chilly, maybe a nice cup of tea would be just the thing after all.

Finally! Some people! And who was this? Perhaps this was the new sister Hitty Dauphine had been promised and had been awaiting for so long.

"Well hello, Hitty Dauphine. Won't you join us for a spot of tea?" Mrs. Witherwax said. "This is Hitty Number 31. She has just stopped in to acquire appropriate attire for her trip to her new home."

Hitty Dauphine's little wooden heart sank. So this was NOT to be her new sister after all. But being the unselfish, sweet natured Hitty that she is, she stood tall and offered to organize a wee fashion show of all the current available gowns from which Hitty No. 31 could choose.

Dido Twite is modeling the first gown, Dress Number 23 in the Weathertop 100 Dresses Project. It is a lovely green frock, made from 100% cotton and featuring snowy white inset lace at the square neckline, the hem and the sleeves.

It really sets off Dido Twite's lovely green eyes.

Dress Number 24 is being modeled by the irrepressible Hitty Bookish. It too is made from 100% cotton fabric and features a double skirt with frothy white ruffles at the square neckline and the elbow length sleeves.

Both dresses have tiny numbered tags attached to verify their authenticity.

Dress Number 22 is modeled by the demure Hitty Holly D. It is constructed of 100% cotton fabric and features lovely hand-worked embroidery and beading on the bodice, hem and waistband.

Here is a detail of the handwork.

It, too, sports a numbered Weathertop label.

The final dress, Dress Number 21, is modeled by Hitty Dauphine herself.

This dress was made from a 100% cotton green polka-dotted fabric. It has been embellished with hand-embroidered daisies and green sparkly seed beads along the hem and waistband.

While Hitty Number 31 liked all of the dresses, Dress number 21 especially appealed to her and fit her like it had been made for her.

"It does look lovely on you Hitty Number 31." Said Hitty Dauphine. "But I have just the thing to give it that extra zing." And with that Hitty Dauphine handed Hitty Number 31 a beautiful matching green necklace to wear with her new dress.

"Now you look just perfect." Sighed Hitty Dauphine putting an arm around her new friend. "I'm sure your new family will just adore you."

And then they said their good-byes.

But later, Mrs. Witherwax, wonderful, knowing lady that she is, sensed that all was not well and went in search of Hitty Dauphine.

"There, there sweetheart." Said Mrs. Witherwax patting Hitty Dauphine on the back. "I know you long for a sister with all of your little wooden being. I have a feeling she will be here sooner than you think. Have patience sweetie."

"Do you really think so?" Hitty Dauphine sniffed.

"I'm sure of it; a little bird told me she'd be arriving very soon." Mrs. Witherwax assured her.

And so Hitty Dauphine sat up, dried her eyes and smiled a small, tentative smile. Hope blooming up from her little wooden heart once more.

End Part Two...To be continued...

Dress number 21 will be offered for sale with Hitty Number 31 on ebay. The rest of the dresses featured here, Dresses 22, 23 and 24, will be offered for sale in separate ebay auctions. All auctions will be set to start tomorrow morning, Thursday, May 28th.

UPDATE:

Hitty Number 31 and all of the fashion show dresses are now available on ebay. Follow this link to my auctions.

In which we wish you a Happy Memorial Day

In our little town, Memorial Day is a really big deal. We have a parade and everyone comes out to watch. It's everyone's big chance to show off their gardens. Starting at the beginning of May, people up and down my street can be seen working hard to get their yards in shape.

I live in a former public building, which I suspect for years had a lovely flower display out in the roadside planter. This is a bit of a burden for me as I will willingly admit that I am not the most attentive gardener. (I don't even have an outside hose hook-up to water the flowers I plant). I usually like to plant nasturtiums -- they remind me of California -- and put a few hanging baskets on my porch, but this year I started a little bit late and the nasturtiums are still in their seed form, so I went to the garden supply store yesterday and picked up some colorful annuals.

This year I planted geraniums and cosmos in the planter (along with some nasturtium and poppy seeds which have not yet sprouted. My mother ALWAYS had geraniums at our house when I was growing up. I love their earthy smell and they always remind me of Memorial Day at Graceland Cemetary in Racine, WI, the town in which I grew up.

The cosmos really belong to Punch. I must attach this piece of information with a warning...If you want total control over your garden, don't take your kids with you to the garden supply store.

Judy chose dahlias and marigolds. I've never had dahlias before, so this will be kind of an experiment.

This year I chose double impatiens for the hanging baskets. They looked so pretty. In the past I've had geraniums which didn't do very well and fuschia, which were beautiful and kept popping back. Anyway, I didn't the impatiens would get a lot of sun on my porch, but as I was leaving this morning, I noticed that they were in full morning sun. I hope they last.

We had a very busy morning, all four of us scattered to the wind. Judy marched in the parade with her middle school band. She plays the flute. After playing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" 13 times in a row, they were sounding pretty darned good! Punch rode on the Cub Scout float, which won the float contest for the first time in several years, beating out the Girl Scouts. This was a very important victory indeed as you can well imagine. (As I don't want to post pictures of other people's children, I will not be sharing photos of these events.) Mr. MacGyver had to work this morning but will be joining us for a picnic later.
And last but hopefully not least, I ended up selling baked goods for the Cub Scout bake sale like a good little Cub Scout mother. As you can see, it felt more like a work day than ever. My poor feeters are very tired.

It was nice to come home to a refreshing snack.

Raspberry jello, blueberries and whipped cream. Yum! Cold, delicious, simple.

I worked hard to find a red, white and blue snack to photograph...LOL! I tried to make heart shaped jello jigglers for this dish, but they got kind of melty. I am not sure what I did wrong, not being a jello efficienado. However it was still very tasty.

Don't you just love these cobalt blue waters? I had to get some close-ups of them because they are just so beautiful.

I have just a few more red, white and blue photos and as there is no rhyme or reason to them other than their lovely display of patriotic color, I will just line them up like little virtual parade below.

I hope you enjoyed my little pictoral parade.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Have fun! Stay Safe! designate a driver!

In which we are visited by the Princess and the Pea

My little princess is getting her tonsils removed in a few weeks and in honor of the occasion (and as a birthday present) her Grandma got her a brand new bed. I mean, we wouldn't want the princess convalescing in a sub-standard bed now would we?

This new bed was delivered today and assembled by the delivery men. I felt quite posh, as we are buy-it-flat-and-assemble-it-yourself type people. We haven't yet progressed to the stage of life where we purchase pre-assembled furniture. It is a whole new world. I quite enjoyed it.

Here is the bed. Judy's room looks like a Pottery Barn catalog!

The mattress with the boxspring included is quite high. You have to climb up onto it. Notice that it is at the same height as her dresser. (I love this dresser by the way and am hoping to inherit it as soon as she decides she needs a white dresser to match her white desk, bookshelves and now her white bed). Anyway, the bed is so high that I almost feel like we need to pile 7 mattresses on top of it and see if Judy can detect a pea underneath all of them. I bet she could...she informed me today that when she is older she is going to drive a Jag. When I suggested that she consider a more practical car that was more conceivably within her price range (keep in mind she is 12), she informed me in the most matter of fact way, "I need an extraordinary car because I am an extraordinary person and nothing else will do." Oh my goodness, who is this person I am raising?

Here she is sharing the moment with her Grandma!

I decided that I needed to bring her down out of the clouds a bit, so we removed the boxspring. The bed is still higher than her previous bed, but now I am thinking she needs new bedding...darn it! Don't you think? Don't tell her I said that or she will require me to go out shopping this very evening to acquire said bedding and if I keep my mouth shut I can shop around a bit.

She does look quite happy though, doesn't she? (I think we need to work on those teeth as soon as the tonsils have been eliminated...yikes!

Thank you Grandma June!